U.Va. football in Norfolk

Norm Wood247-4642

About 3,000 fans watched Virginia's practice at Foreman Field

The Cavaliers will do this again, in a different part of the state

This is U.Va.'s first spring practice under MIke London

As he stood near an end zone Saturday in Foreman Field after his team's scrimmage, Virginia football coach Mike London shook hands and accepted praise from well-wishers and fans for a successful venture at Old Dominion.

Well, almost everybody had something nice to say. Hungry and obviously ready to hit the road, one of London's young sons voiced his opinion about the day's proceedings: "Why'd you want to come all the way down to ODU to do this?"

London, a Bethel High graduate, smiled and gave the young man a hug. There wasn't much that could dampen London's spirits after giving an estimated 3,000 fans and recruits an inside look at his team for 2 1/2 hours, just a few miles away from his old Hampton stomping grounds.

As important as the day could end up being for raising awareness of his program in the Hampton Roads area, there was a more immediate calling in mind for London after the scrimmage was over. A rare dinner at his parents' home in Hampton was waiting.

"In about 20 minutes, I'm about to go across the bridge over there and get some black-eyed peas and things like that, so that's real meaningful," London said.

"It means a lot (to do the scrimmage at ODU). When you come from an area where you know a lot of great coaches and a lot of great players, you want to represent yourself well, because you represent a community that your parents still live in."

U.Va., which is in the midst of its first spring practice under London after going 3-9 last season in former coach Al Groh's final season, showed a little bit of everything to the gathered crowd. After opening the afternoon proceedings with a normal practice session, U.Va. split up into sides for a short scrimmage that featured a lot of first-team offense against first-team defense.

"Coming out, guys were almost anxious," quarterback Marc Verica said. "It was like we were getting ready to play another team, but we were just scrimmaging ourselves. It was a good experience for some of those young guys that had never been on the road before, because it kind of simulated that a little bit.

"It was definitely a worthwhile experience for a number of reasons, primarily for some more exposure across the state and to start building some better relationships in this area and bring this to them."

When the scrimmage was over, London was already prepared to make plans for an encore performance elsewhere in the state. After the Cavaliers failed to have more than half of their signees hail from the state of Virginia in six of their last eight recruiting classes, London knows getting U.Va. to be a fixture in state recruiting won't be an overnight process.

"Oh, we're going to do it again," London said. "It's just where now, whether it's Richmond, Northern Virginia or somewhere. I think it just makes good sense for us. I don't know about anybody else. We just kind of want to show we want to advance it forward. We want to do things out of the box a little bit here, but we want to play football. We need people's support and try to raise the level of enthusiasm and excitement. If (scrimmages like Saturday's at ODU) adds to it, then I'm all for it."

London wasn't the only U.Va. coach enjoying a sort of homecoming through Saturday's unique scrimmage atmosphere. Chip West, a Kecoughtan High graduate who is now U.Va.'s cornerbacks coach, was the assistant head coach, recruiting coordinator and defensive-backs coach last season at ODU.

"It's kind of surreal, you know?" West said regarding the experience of helping direct U.Va.'s scrimmage at Foreman Field. "It's a surreal kind of feeling, but it was wonderful. We got great crowd support and great support from the area high school coaches."

U.Va. defensive end Will Hill, a Lafayette High graduate, said he felt as if Saturday's experience had many elements of a home-game-type feel because he had several family members in attendance. But he added that the team looked at it as an opportunity to get used to foreign territory. U.Va.'s players and coaches arrived in Norfolk on Friday night and stayed in a hotel at Waterside.

"We considered this our first road game," Hill said. "We handled it, and our whole protocol was like it was a road game. As far as preparation-wise is concerned, I think it's going to pay dividends in the future."